Investigative Reporting

1. What is investigative reporting?

Investigative journalism is finding, reporting and presenting news which other people try to
hide. It is very similar to standard news reporting, except that the people at the centre of the
story will usually not help you and may even try to stop you doing your job.

The job of journalists is to let people know what is going on in the community, the society
and the world around them. Journalists do this by finding facts and telling them to their
readers or listeners.

In much of their work, the facts are easy to find in such places as the courts and parliaments,
disasters, public meetings, churches and sporting events. People are usually happy to provide
journalists with news. Indeed, in many countries, thousands of people work full time in
public relations, giving statements, comments, press releases and other forms of information
to journalists.

Throughout the world, though, there are still a lot of things happening which people want to
keep secret. In most cases these are private things which have no impact on other people -
such as relations within a family or a bad report from school. These personal things can
remain secret.

In many other cases, governments, companies, organisations and individuals try to hide
decisions or events which affect other people. When a journalist tries to report on matters
which somebody wants to keep secret, this is investigative journalism.

The great British newspaper publisher Lord Northcliffe once said: “News is what somebody,
somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising.”

There are several reasons why societies need investigative journalism. They include:

 People have a right to know about the society in which they live. They have a right to
know about decisions which may affect them, even if people in power want to keep them
secret.
 People in power - whether in government, the world of commerce, or any other group in
society - can abuse that power. They can be corrupt, steal money, break laws and do all
sorts of things which harm other people. They might just be incompetent and unable to
do their job properly. They will usually try to keep this knowledge secret. Journalists try
to expose such abuse.
 Journalists also have a duty to watch how well people in power perform their jobs,
especially those who have been elected to public office. Journalists should constantly ask
whether such people are keeping their election promises. Politicians and others who are
not keeping their promises may try to hide the fact; journalists should try to expose it.

Of course, journalists are not the only people in society who should expose incompetence,
corruption, lies and broken promises. We also have parliaments, councils, courts,
commissions, the police and other authorities. The police often take people to court for
breaking laws. But sometimes they do not have the time, staff or skills to catch and correct
every case of abuse. Also, they cannot do anything against people who behave badly without
actually breaking any laws.

So journalists have a role as well. The difference is that when journalists expose wrongdoing,
they cannot punish people. Journalists can only bring wrongdoing into the light of public
attention and hope that society will do the rest, to punish wrongdoers or to change a system
which is at fault.

2. Who should we investigate?

Journalists should be able to expose abuse, corruption and criminal activities in all fields of
public life, but the main areas include the following:

Governments

These range from local councils to national parliaments and foreign governments. Sometimes
politicians and public servants are actually corrupt and should be exposed and removed from
office. But often they hide a decision because they know the public may not like it. They
might keep a deal they have made with a foreign timber company secret because it will harm
the environment or destroy people's homes. Often politicians and public servants spend so
long in office that they forget that the public has the right to know what is happening. If the
public elects people to office and gives them taxes and other forms of wealth to administer,
the public has the right to know what they are doing. The electors should also know so that
they can decide how to vote at the next election.

Companies

Some companies break the law and should be exposed. But companies usually like to keep
activities secret for other reasons. Perhaps they have made a mistake or lost money. Perhaps
they do not want competitors to steal their secrets or they do not want people to oppose a
development they are planning. However, even private companies have some responsibility
towards the public. Companies are part of each society. They usually make some use of
natural resources, take money from customers and shareholders, provide jobs for people and
use services provided by all taxpayers. Where their activities affect the rest of the community,
the community has a right to know what they are doing.

Criminals

Although governments and companies can be corrupt, criminals make their living at it. They
act like leeches on the community, so your readers and listeners have the right to know about
them. Fighting crime is, of course, mainly the job of the police and legal system. But
sometimes they do not have enough resources to do their jobs properly. Sometimes the law
itself limits their powers. Also, the police and judiciary can sometimes be corrupt themselves.
So journalists - like every law-abiding citizen - have the duty to expose wrongdoing.

There are, of course, all sorts of other individuals and organisations who like to hide things
which affect the public. A charity may try to hide the fact that it is not doing a good job with
money it has been given. A football club might be secretly negotiating to move its ground
against the wishes of its fans. A man might be selling coloured water as a cure for every
illness. All these things need to be exposed so that the public can make up its mind whether
to support them or not.

3. Some basic principles of investigative reporting

4.